Undercurrents

Iwagakure, Tsuchikage's Office.

The Third Kazekage Tsuchikage, Ōnoki, was hunched over his desk, the towering stack of documents completely obscuring his figure; from the outside, it was impossible to tell whether he was actually working.

With a "bang," the door was pushed open, and Kitsuchi rushed in, his face full of anxiety, showing no trace of composure.

"Father, hurry, hurry, something terrible has happened!"

"Bullshit! Your old man is perfectly fine! And here, you have to call me Lord Tsuchikage!"

A loud bang came from behind the desk, and the Third Tsuchikage angrily raised his head.

However, from the perspective of the Kitsuchi, all that could be seen was Tsuchikage's bald head and a small tuft of hair. This immediately suppressed his anxious emotions, and the Kakuzu twitched involuntarily a few times.

Ōnoki carefully pushed the documents on the desk to the sides, and seeing the twitching corner of the boy's mouth, he became furious and threw the pen he was holding at him.

"You bastard, what are you doing here?"

A single sentence snapped Kitsuchi out of his daze, and he remembered the important matter he needed to discuss.

"Lord Tsuchikage, the forces that attacked the Land of Wind have been defeated. They were driven out of the Land of Wind yesterday and are currently being reorganized by the Border Troops."

"What!" Ōnoki slammed his hand on the table, startled and jumped to his feet. Perhaps he stood up too abruptly, because there was a "crack" sound. Ōnoki's face changed drastically, and he cried out "Ouch, ouch!" while clutching his aching back.

Upon seeing this, Kitsuchi immediately understood that his old father must have twisted his back again. He quickly took two steps forward, disregarding all etiquette, and helped Ōnoki sit down again.

"Quickly, repeat what you just said in detail." At this point, Ōnoki didn't care about his aching back. He had just sat down and hurriedly urged Kitsuchi to tell him the information properly.

"The day before yesterday, the Fourth Kazekage personally led a raid on our camp in the Camp of Land of Wind— " Kitsuchi reported all the information he had learned from the fleeing Rock Ninja of the Border Troops to the Tsuchikage.

"According to the initial statistics from the front-line troops, the losses in this First Shinobi World War are at least eight hundred. Father, what should we do next? Should we gather the ninjas and fight back?"

On Kitsuchi Tu's honest, round face, a rare fierce expression appeared. The losses in this First Shinobi World War were too great, and the defeat was extremely humiliating.

Tsuchikage rolled his eyes at Kitsuchi. After this period of adjustment, he had accepted the fact of defeat. All that was left was to think about how to clean up the mess.

"Fight back? What for?" The Tsuchikage straightened his back, glancing sideways at the Kitsuchi. "It seems you don't understand why we attacked the Land of Wind in the first place."

Kitsuchi Tu was completely confused. "Wasn't it because the Third Kazekage of Sunagakure had disappeared, leaving the village leaderless, that we wanted to take advantage and see if we could seize some of the Land of Land of Wind's lands?"

Ōnoki was exasperated and reached out to give his son a good slap. How could he, with his illustrious reputation, have given birth to such an honest and simple-minded son? But halfway through his hand, a sharp pain in his lower back forced him to abandon this "wonderful" wish.

"That's only part of it. It would be good if we could occupy it, but even if we can't, we can still plunder a lot of the Land of Wind's resources during the attack, especially their unique concentrated mineral deposits."

Kitsuchi nodded in sudden realization. No wonder so many supplies had been transported back from the front lines recently; that was the reason.

"Father, are we no longer going to use those resources? And what about those ninjas who sacrificed their lives? Are we just going to let them go without seeking revenge?"

"Revenge must be taken, but there's no need for such a large-scale fight." Ōnoki's body slowly floated up and landed back in his seat.

"When I learned that Sunagakure had quickly chosen their Fourth Kazekage, I considered whether to withdraw the troops that had invaded the Land of Wind. I just didn't expect them to be defeated so quickly. That frontline Commander was truly useless!"

Kitsuchi didn't take his father's complaints seriously and persisted in asking, "Then what should we do? By now, the Border Troops should have already entered the Land of Birds to pick up the fleeing soldiers."

"Pass the order: have the Border Troops set up camp in the Land of Birds, primarily to receive the fleeing soldiers. There's no need to launch an attack on Sunagakure for now; wait for further instructions from the villages!"

"What Father means is----" Kitsuchi was somewhat confused.

"The Fourth Kazekage of Sunagakure is no ordinary person. I think they should be stationed in the middle of the Land of Birds right now." Ōnoki spread a map of the Ninja World on the table and pointed to a location in the Land of Birds.

Kitsuchi stepped forward, looked at the map, and still couldn't quite understand it. He thought to himself, "These people are all so cunning. They can't just say what they want to say; they have to play games here."

Looking at himself, Ōnoki sighed. He thought that everything about Kitsuchi was good, except that his personality was too honest and straightforward.

"The Kazekage doesn't want to fight anymore either. After all, the real prize in this Ninja World is right here!" Ōnoki stopped beating around the bush and pointed his finger sharply at the center of the map, where the Land of Fire was located.

"You mean, Sunagakure wants to attack Konoha? Didn't they just sign an alliance?"

"An alliance? That's nothing but a piece of waste paper. Just you wait, Sunagakure will send someone to talk to us soon." Ōnoki spoke with absolute certainty, as if he had already foreseen the future.

A week has passed since the victory of the Sunagakure counterattack, and during this time, Taiichi has been like a busy little bee, flying all over the Land of Birds.

However, no matter how industrious the bees are, without enough flowers, they cannot produce enough honey.

After the counterattack ended, Iwagakure initially launched two attacks on Sunagakure, but with Sunagakure well-prepared, Iwagakure gained no advantage whatsoever.

After probing each other, both sides retreated to their respective camps without even leaving behind many corpses.

In the days that followed, Iwagakure seemed to have received new instructions, and even the basic probing attacks ceased. Throughout the Land of Birds, neither Sunagakure nor Iwagakure sent out any additional ninjas beyond their daily patrols.

Now it was Taiichi's turn to feel a headache. Both sides were so restrained, so how could he take advantage of the chaos? Should he continue with this mission?

That day, Taiichi was having lunch, pondering what to do next. It seemed that the Land of Birds was not going to be attacked, so should he go into the Land of Wind or the Land of Earth to cause destruction?

However, even if it's disguised, it's too easy for people to see through, and it won't achieve the effect of sowing discord between the two sides.

Just as Taiichi was racking his brains, a sudden wave came from behind him. As if by reflex, Taiichi drew his sword, turned around, and slashed.

But he abruptly stopped the knife halfway through its stroke.

"Senior Disciple Brother Minato, it's you! You really gave me a fright!" Taiichi exaggeratedly wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and put his Short Sword back in.

Taichi had intended to continue joking around, but when he saw that Minato's usual warm smile was gone, replaced by a hint of worry, Taiichi's expression also turned serious.

"I'm sorry, Taiichi," Minato Namikaze's voice was low and unusually heavy, "I just came back from the north, and something seems wrong."

Taiichi's heart stirred; it seemed he wasn't the only one with this feeling.

"You noticed it too? It seems like Iwagakure has suddenly changed its ways. These past few days, they've sent out far fewer scouts, and their patrol routes are extremely regular. Aside from the initial clashes with Sunagakure patrols, the two sides haven't even made contact with each other anymore."

"Not bad!" Minato frowned, his azure eyes gleaming with all-seeing sharpness. "I secretly observed several Iwagakure outposts and Resupply points. Their supplies coming and going seemed more like a conservative defense, without any offensive posture whatsoever."

Even more suspiciously, the Sunagakure Village, despite having the upper hand and establishing a firm foothold in the Land of Birds, remained inactive, showing no sign of expanding their gains.

This is highly unusual; it doesn't fit the situation at all, given how bloodthirsty they were a few days ago.

Taiichi stuffed the last bit of dry food into his mouth, chewing as he rapidly thought.

"Something's definitely fishy. The combined casualties on both sides of the war between Sunagakure and Iwagakure are probably close to 3,000, and now everything's suddenly peaceful." -- Senior Disciple Brother Minato, do you think it might be...?

Minato continued Taiichi's unfinished sentence, his voice even lower and filled with intense wariness: "You mean—"

These two companies—have they reached a tacit understanding in private? Or even—have they reached some kind of temporary agreement?

Their eyes met, and they both saw the shock and worry in each other's eyes.

The Sunagakure had just dealt a heavy blow to the Iwagakure on the battlefield, but the Iwagakure, despite its defeat, did not launch a furious counterattack as expected.

These two ninja villages each had their own plans. Ebizo was cunning and shrewd, the new Fourth Kazekage didn't seem like someone easy to deal with, and Ōnoki of Iwagakure was notoriously treacherous.

Konoha sent these two people to further deepen the hatred between the two villages through assassination and sabotage, drawing them into a bloodbath and preventing them from prematurely setting their sights on Konoha, this lucrative target.

"That's it!" Taiichi clapped his hands, a cold glint flashing in his eyes. "The Sunagakure was so aggressive a few days ago, wanting to wipe out the Iwagakure, but now they've gone quiet. The Iwagakure Land of Wind, just to get resources and weaken the Sunagakure."

Now that both sides feel they can't continue fighting, the most likely reason is that they have a bigger objective and are preparing to shift their focus elsewhere!

"This is the worst-case scenario!" Minato said decisively. "If they have indeed reached some kind of secret alliance or truce, then their target will definitely be us!"

Without further ado, the two reached an agreement instantly. Minato's eyes sharpened. "The situation is urgent. There's no point in staying here to harass us any longer. Let's end the mission and return to Camp."

"Yes!" Taiichi nodded emphatically, his face also darkening. If their guess was correct, then Konoha would no longer be facing minor skirmishes as before.

Without further hesitation, the two, having made their decision, did not delay and rushed towards the Land of Rivers camp at top speed.

A day after Minato and Taiichi left the Land of Birds, and after several days of tacit probing between the two villages, both sides understood each other's intention not to continue fighting.

Driven by this shared desire, on this day, the Commander of the two Camp finally met for the first time in the central area of Land of Birds.

Neither side brought many ninjas, since they were still at war. The lower-ranking ninjas on both sides were eager for the other to die immediately, so they naturally wouldn't bring them to such a confidential occasion.

Dry winds whipped up dust, sweeping across the scorched earth of the central Land of Birds, ravaged by Ninjutsu. The two groups had been facing off for a long time, the twenty meters separating them like an invisible yet clear boundary.

On the Sunagakure side, Ebizo, though hunched over, had sharp eyes. He was accompanied by Jonin, and they calmly observed the Iwagakure team opposite them.

The leader, Rock Ninja, was their frontline Commander Mahiru. His face bore the characteristic tenacity of Iwagakure, along with a hint of impatience.

The air was so heavy it was almost viscous, with only the sound of the wind howling.

This war, which yields no benefit, has dragged on for nearly a month, with both sides suffering heavy losses of ninjas. The very fact that they are standing here sends a strong signal: continuing the fight will only result in more bloodshed on both sides.

Ebizo stepped forward, his hoarse voice breaking the First Gate, getting straight to the point. "Mahiru, we both know that if we continue fighting, we'll only be shedding the blood of wind and earth. The real prey isn't here."

The Mahiru remained expressionless, simply nodding slowly. If he didn't have this understanding, he wouldn't have come here to negotiate with these sand rats.

"Ebizo, everyone calls you the Desert Fox," indeed, the saying is true. Our entanglement here is merely allowing others to reap the benefits. His voice was like a rock, carrying the composure honed on the battlefield. "The Third Kazekage Hokage also shares this concern."

A barely perceptible smile appeared on Ebizo's lips, a sign of understanding and the end of the probing.

He refused to retreat and directly presented his conditions. "In that case, Sunagakure proposes that both sides sign a ceasefire treaty and temporarily cease hostilities. The current occupied territories will serve as the boundary, and both sides will restrain their Shinobi Army, redirecting their attention and forces towards—"

Our real goal.

"A ceasefire treaty?" Mahiru's brow furrowed almost imperceptibly, his tone hardening with a firm refusal. "No treaty needed, Ebizo."

Everyone knows that Sunagakure breaks treaties as casually as eating and drinking. Sunagakure may be shameless, but Iwagakure still has some sense of shame.

Ebizo's gaze sharpened slightly, awaiting the next part.

The Mahiru's words continued, but were deeper and clearer, as if each word carried the will of Iwagakure: "The treaty cannot bind you, and I do not believe in such things. We only ask for the status quo."

He looked up, staring directly at Ebizo, his eyes unwavering. "From this moment on, as long as Sunagakure does not attack Iwagakure's bases, outposts, or logistics, the Iwagakure Ninja will never take a single step westward. And vice versa. We will wait for the right moment."

Ebizo remained silent for a moment, a gentle breeze brushing against his aged face. He understood the true intentions of the Mahiru, or rather, the Tsuchikage behind the Mahiru.

Abandon pointless fighting and seek the true objective, but at the same time, never leave behind any written evidence that could be used as leverage in case of questioning or even betrayal.

A tacit agreement, unspoken understanding, and tacit cooperation are currently the most beneficial approach for both parties.

This is indeed the cleanest, most efficient, and least troublesome solution.

"Captain Mahiru has considered everything carefully." Ebizo finally nodded slowly, responding with the same solemn tone, "Sunagakure accepts this proposal. Our conflict ends here. The area under our actual control today shall be the boundary; neither Sunagakure nor the other shall infringe upon the other's territory."

The Mahiru's tense expression finally relaxed slightly, and he nodded gently. "Alright! Let's wait and see—when the time is right."

The representatives from both sides gave each other a cold glance, said nothing more, turned around, and led their men back to their respective Camp.

They need to report today's verbal agreement as soon as possible so that the village can make strategic adjustments immediately, because what follows is the real Ninja World War.